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Littleton selectmen aim to hire 4 firefighters

By Hiroko Sato, hsato@lowellsun.com

Updated:
02/08/2013 06:36:09 AM EST

LITTLETON -- Town officials project the local government will receive only as much state aid next fiscal year as it has for this year. Local receipts are also expected to grow only 4.2 percent, or $60,000, thanks to the newly instituted local meals tax.

However the revenue scenario changes, selectmen hope to hire four additional firefighters to respond to emergency calls more quickly at night while avoiding a tax override at all cost.

"It's cost effective for what we are getting," Selectman Ted Doucette said of the fire chief's estimate that the additional staff would reduce the average nighttime response time from 11 minutes to 3 minutes.

There are many spending priorities, Selectman Alex McCurdy said.

"At the top of the list are public safety and the education of the children," McCurdy said.

Selectmen, the Finance Committee and the School Committee are scheduled to hold an upcoming joint meeting. Selectmen plan to communicate their spending priorities and provide some guidance to the Finance Committee during the meeting, Doucette said.

In deciding the priorities, selectmen are keeping the town's tight finances in mind. According to Bonnie Holston, assistant town manager for finance and budget, the town is anticipating a $349,000 budget shortfall for fiscal 2014 at the moment. Factors behind the budget gap include a projected level funding in state aid and nominal increases in local revenue and a 5 percent, or $781,901 funding increase for the School District to help pay for the deferred step increases that local teachers agreed to last year to save job.

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Hiring four new full-time firefighters would cost the town $165,000 more per year compared to the no staffing increase scenario. The town projects a $300,000 increase in property tax revenue from the growth.

On Monday night, selectmen agreed to make the funding for the hiring of firefighters among their priorities. That's because Littleton relies heavily on its 40 on-call firefighters but only two to five of them -- and sometimes none -- would respond because most people work outside town and could not rush to an emergency site. Fire Chief Scott Wodzinski has said he is able to send out trucks within 4 to 6 minutes during the day because the Department has four firefighters covering weekday shifts at a time and two firefighters per weekend day shift. But the response time soars to 9 to 13 minutes at night because there are no full-time firefighters manning the stations overnight.

Wodzinski has presented selectmen his cost analysis in December. He estimates maintaining the existing staff will cost an additional $78,911 next year, $209,612 more to have four additional shifts to be filled by available on-call firefighters and $243,932 more to have four full-time firefighters to fill those shifts, compared to the level of the current year spending. Wodzinski also projects the department would need to spend $508,414 more than it is now to have eight additional full-time firefighters -- a scenario which he hopes to make a reality in three years.

Selectmen's other goals include helping the School Department maintain all the existing services. Holston said the $39.64 million spending plan for fiscal 2014, which is in a preliminary drafting stage, calls for level-staffing of town departments, except for the Fire Department, with no cost-of-living increases.

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